Eating in Paris

Although San Sebastian is an absolute food mecca, and we love eating here, eating in Paris was wonderful. Although we did not eat in any super fancy (or expensive) restaurants, we were able to find many neighborhood restaurants that provided excellent food for 100-120 euros for dinner, including wine. Ah, the wine. We really enjoyed drinking French wine, both white and red, from all over the country. The only complaint we had was that none of the restaurants we visited had good wine glasses, but that is just our pet peeve when it comes to wine.

Some highlights: at our first dinner, Jeff had an appetizer that was basically pate formed around pieces of cold duck breast. It was about the most "Jeff" dish that we could imagine since those are two of his favorite things. We had a fantastic lunch in a restaurant that was the size of a shoe box. Seriously, the restaurant had 22 seats and the kitchen was so tiny that the menu only has 6 items: two choices each for appetizers, entrees, and dessert. We tried everything on the menu and it was all fantastic. (Shout out to Larry J for the recommendation!)

Of course, we had to go to a fromagerie for a meat, cheese and wine lunch, an experience that was enhanced by chatting in Spanish with the couple from Malaga at the next table. Very interesting, because she was originally from Armenia with many cousins who ended up in Glendale, CA.

On the more casual side, we had fantastic kosher falafel in the city's Le Marais neighborhood, which has traditionally been Jewish.

We also ate at another kosher restaurant in the Marais that is a modern take on Israeli/French food, Miznon, where we ate beef bourguignon in a pita (no, I am not kidding) and had a middle-eastern style ratatouille. Both dishes were fantastic and we are already planning to return to the Marais in September.

Of course, we had to have a lunch of traditional French crepes, which we did in a very cute, family-owned place (delicious), and dessert at the best place for Belgian waffles in the city -- chocolate of course. After sharing a waffle, we both had the same thought: "I want another one," but we managed to restrain ourselves.

A final note on Paris: when Jeff was in Paris many years ago, the people, and especially the waiters, lived up to their reputation of being rude and snooty to tourists. That is absolutely no longer true. We had no problem speaking English anywhere in Paris, and we did not feel like waiters (or anyone else) were rude to us because we did not speak French. So, come visit Paris. We just might meet you there for lunch, dinner and Belgian waffles.

We are stuffed.

Jeff and Shana